Hey There Skippy’s Crew;
I am submitting this post because my writing has been well received here in the past, because some of the Skippyites are devoutly interested or involved in these sorts of shenanigans, but mostly because the creature described in the story, once skinned, looked remarkably, nightmare inducingly, similar to Skippys recent Hugs-n-Penetration artwork. Pictures of the beast are on my FB page (Raymond Kemp) which is open and doesn’t require a friend request to examine.
Introductions complete, the main feature follows:
NO SHIT- THERE I WAS
I debated long and hard over taking this shot. I really did. At least, in the relative sense that while free diving alone forty feet deep in a kelp forest, a long hard debate is allocated about half a second. In that time, while already ascending through the canopy, what passed through my mind was, approximately; What the Hell is that thing? Is it good to eat? Can it hurt me? Is it big enough to be worth shooting? Is it legal to shoot? I’ve had good and bad experiences trying to eat searays before, do I really want to go through the hassle? Can that fucking thing hurt me?
Well, there is only one way to answer questions such as those, so Blam! I shot it in the head. Good shot, too. Only, unlike most of the fish I shoot, this one fought back. Effectively.
This cat didn’t have a stinger. Unbeknownst to me, until after such knowledge would have caused me to swim rapidly in any other direction, it had spines. Rows of them. Vicious, hooked, needle sharp outgrowths of its spine sprouting from all around its tail and back. And mere skin or scales would be entirely insufficient for this beast. No. This thing being a Ray (specifically, a Thornyback Ray (Platyrhinoidis triseriata), I now know), it, like sharks, doesn’t have scales. It has denticles. Denticles are, literally, tiny little teeth that sharks and rays line their skin with. They’re shaped just like the teeth sharks line their mouths with, and just as sharp. This makes shark and ray skin smooth as velvet in one direction, and rougher than sandpaper in the other, which is why ray skin has been the premier grip for swords all through the ages. It’s a rare, sought after material called “shagreen”. (more…)
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